BTV America
BTV America is an American TV network, O&O by WMFL Worldwide & is available on both cable & satellite History The channel launched on July 1st 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama & lifestyle programs from the BTV & from other British TV channels. In the early days, the channel focused on repeats of popular lifestyle shows such as Changing Rooms & Ground Force. BTV America's head of programming later stated that it was important for the channel to establish a niche since non-UK viewers found the lifestyle shows appealing. The evening schedule is where most new programming would appear. The network removed the popular British soap opera EastEnders from the schedules in 2003 after low ratings, but provoked a high number of complaints from viewers which caught the attention of the media. In 2003, BTV America was restructured. It moved it's main offices to New York City & saw it's programming budget increase substantially. Since then the channel has adopted the same visual presentation used on BTV 1, BTV's flagship channel in the UK Distribution & availability The network is not subject to funding from the UK licence fee by law: BTV cannot fund any of it's channels that are not available in the United Kingdom. As this is the case, the channel carries advertisements Outside the US BTV America is available in Bermuda on both Bermuda CableVision's digital cable TV service & the WOW (World on Wireless) service. It's also available in the US Pacific territory of Guam on MCV Broadband's cable service & on GTA TeleGuam's IPTV service, the only territory outside North America where the channel is available On Demand BTV America On Demand refers to a selection of BTV America programs available as video on demand programming on many U.S. digital cable systems. These video-on-demand programs are usually available for 2-4 weeks before being rotated out. These programs are offered commercial-free though they are interrupted for network promos BTV America-HD BTV America-HD, a HD simulcast version of BTV America, is carried nationally by DISH Network, Time Warner Cable & COX Communications. It was rolled out by these carriers on February 10th 2010 & is also carried on some smaller regional providers. The channel was originally made available to all the channel's distribution partners on July 20th, 2009. No providers carried the HD version @ launch. On August 19th 2009, Time Warner Cable's NYC division became the 1st provider to carry the HD channel. BTV America-HD is available on DISH Network as of February 10th 2010, but it's restriction to newer orbital locations makes it difficult to obtain for many customers Programming The following is a list of programming that is currently airing on the channel. While many of the shows were produced by BTV, some of the shows are either from other British TV networks or reruns of American programming that was co-produced by BTV or from another British TV network: *''Antiques Roadshow UK'' *''BTV World News'' *''BTV World News America'' *''Cash in the Attic'' *''Doctor Who?'' *''BTV Friday Night'' *''The F Word'' *''The Graham Norton Show'' *''How Clean is Your House?'' *''Peep Show'' *''Kitchen Nightmares'' *''Survivors'' *''That Mitchell & Webb Look'' *''Top Gear'' *''You Are What You Eat'' Most of the non-news programming is edited either for adult content or to allow for commercials. However, many comedy programs run in specially formatted 40-minute blocks & a few first-run drama programs in a longer block that allow them to run to their original broadcast length, though adult content is still edited Original Programming In the mid 2000's, BTV America produced a few of it's own shows along with some joint productions. This has included Sharpe's Challenge, part of the Sharpe series of TV movies & also The State Within & Jekyll which were co-productions with BTV Newscasts BTV America simulcast several newscasts during the day from it's sister channel, BTV World News. The weekday morning (6:00–9:00 AM ET) simulcast includes BTV World News newscasts, BTV's World Business, BTV Sport Today, BTV Asia Today & a 1-hour newscast called BTV World News Today. There's also a weekend morning (6:00–7:00 AM ET) simulcast of BTV World News. On May 18th, the morning simulcast expanded to 4 hours, now from 5:00-9:00 AM on weekdays. From 7:00–8:00 PM ET & repeated from 10:00–11:00 PM ET, BTV America airs BTV World News America, presented LIVE from Washington, D.C. An international edition of BTV 2's popular news program, BTV Newsnight debuted on February 29th 2008, in the 10:00 PM time slot. This program was moved @ 11:00 PM & is still there to this day. During major BREAKING NEWS situations, the network will sometimes take BTV World News' coverage & pre-empt regular programming. The London Bombings in July of 2005 were 1 such example. However, BTV World News itself is not currently widely available in the US as a separate channel (although it does appear on several cable systems throughout the United States, generally in lieu of BTV America. 1 such example is the New York-based service Cablevision) or in a 30-minute telecast on public TV stations daily External links